Elizabeth McGregor enjoyed her week away at the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships and is extremely grateful for her parents, who take off work to drive her where she needs to be.
Local rugby league star Elizabeth McGregor recently competed in the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships, and shares her experience:
I arrived in Redcliffe on 30th June, for the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships for under 18s girls and boys. I was playing for NSW Combined Catholic Colleges.
We had three training sessions prior to heading up to Redcliffe in Sydney and continued to train throughout the week of the championships. On Friday we had a team training for about two hours to refresh our minds on our game plan, moves and defence.
On Saturday at 9am we had the opening ceremony for the championships before our team photo and three games for the day. They were only 20 minute games, since the games were short the first try was worth fivepoints and the rest were four plus no conversions to avoid ties.
Our first game was against Victoria which we defended on our line most of the game. We came away with a 9-8 win. Our next game was against ACT which we won 17-4.Then NSW Combined high schools whichwere going to be our biggest competitionin our pool. We came away with a 5-8 winscoring our winning try in the last minute ofthe game. It was definitely the most excitinggame of the day.
After all of our games we headed down to the lagoon to get in the freezing cold water for recovery. On Sunday we had training and recovery.
On Monday we played the same three teams again. NSWCHS was first, we knew it was going to be a tough game and the result was 5-4 their way, scoring first gave them the one point win. Then ACT which we won 17-0. Then Victoria which we won 17-4.
On Tuesday we had another video session, training, recovery and team bonding. Wednesday was meant to be semi finals but they were postponed due to water on the field.
So on Thursday we were up against QLD from the other pool. They were the team to beat. In finals games went to 25 minute halves, points went back to normal and conversions were back in. We lead at half time 6-0. With a few questionable calls in thesecond half QLD crossed the line for threetries. They missed all conversions so whenwe came back and scored it was 12-10 theirway. Our kicker had been taken off the fieldso one of our front rowers had to kick closeto the sideline, as she striked it looked hopeful, but the ball just drifted left and missed,meaning we were out of the running for thegrand final.
I’m hoping to make NSW again next year to go back to the Australian Championships and give it another crack. But for now I’m just enjoying playing for Parkes Marist (17s) and Spacecats (opens) in league tag, working on my fitness and strength for the local tackle comp that should start in about September and training with the Roosters Tarsha Gale girls to hopefully play in that competition early next year.
By Elizabeth McGregor